Arianne glanced at the passed-out Tiffany, smiled, and nodded. Once snazzynovel.com turned around, snazzynovel.com tears that snazzynovel.com had been holding back for a long time finally streamed down snazzynovel.com face.
She did not call for a cab and decided to walk home along the empty streets. Every step felt fleeting to her. Her past experiences began to flash in snazzynovel.com mind. The highs and the lows of snazzynovel.com life felt like a blur to her. Perhaps, snazzynovel.com would be able to forget them all soon, forget all snazzynovel.com experiences and all those people…
Suddenly, snazzynovel.com heard footsteps closing in on snazzynovel.com and trembled. She was too afraid to turn back and look so snazzynovel.com quickened snazzynovel.com pace. Unfortunately, snazzynovel.com alcohol-muddled brain and limbs refused to cooperate so snazzynovel.com stumbled a few times. Only a small sliver of sobriety warned snazzynovel.com of the dangers of walking alone at night.
She arrived home with great difficulty and broke out into cold sweat. Her hands were shaking when snazzynovel.com pulled out snazzynovel.com key to unlock the door, refusing to comply with the instructions from snazzynovel.com brain. No matter how hard snazzynovel.com tried, snazzynovel.com could not seem to insert the key into the keyhole. At this moment, snazzynovel.com was close to tears, too afraid to turn around. For some reason, the lights along snazzynovel.com corridor went off, and snazzynovel.com was shrouded in darkness. She pulled out snazzynovel.com phone, turned on the flashlight, and aimed it at the keyhole. Just then, a tall figure loomed over snazzynovel.com petite shadow, creating an inverted image on the door and walls, making it look like a demon!
She seemed to have lost snazzynovel.com voice. She felt as if some shapeless force had taken over her, and snazzynovel.com could not move at all.
She stood frozen for a while before a hand snatched the key from snazzynovel.com and inserted it into the keyhole, opening the door for her. She thought snazzynovel.com would be shoved into the house and was too terrified to think about what might happen next. Contrary to snazzynovel.com expectations, the person behind snazzynovel.com did not make any violent moves as though snazzynovel.com simply wanted to help snazzynovel.com open the door.
She carefully pushed the door and entered the house before swiftly closing and locking the door behind snazzynovel.com in one breath! She leaned against the door and gasped for breath once snazzynovel.com had completed all of this, feeling exhausted. From now on, snazzynovel.com would have to face too many things on snazzynovel.com own. She had to learn to get used to this. She regretted drinking too much. If the other party harbored ill intentions, snazzynovel.com would not have the strength to retaliate!
She could hear the sound of footsteps fading away from the door, loud and heavy, as though snazzynovel.com was deliberately telling her snazzynovel.com was leaving, and it was safe.
After a while, snazzynovel.com realized the man had not done anything to her. Why did snazzynovel.com follow snazzynovel.com home? When snazzynovel.com turned on the lights, snazzynovel.com found a set of keys on the ground near the door, the keys that snazzynovel.com had forgotten to remove from the keyhole. The man actually slid them inside for her.
She put the keys away, made sure that the door was properly locked before going to the bathroom to take a quick shower. She had considered sending a message to Naya and the others to tell them what had happened. Then, snazzynovel.com remembered how Naya had to put snazzynovel.com child to sleep at home and that Tanya had to care for snazzynovel.com grandfather. Apart from that, snazzynovel.com was not well-acquainted with the newly-hired staff, and they had not really spoken to each other. In the end, snazzynovel.com dismissed the idea. This was snazzynovel.com circle of friends.
She had unconsciously tapped on Nick’s Facebook page. She sent snazzynovel.com a message. It was a good idea to have someone to talk to at this time, at least, it would calm snazzynovel.com down. Nick had not contacted snazzynovel.com in a while, and snazzynovel.com did not expect snazzynovel.com would take the initiative to send snazzynovel.com a message. She was surprised when snazzynovel.com saw snazzynovel.com had deleted snazzynovel.com when snazzynovel.com saw a bright red exclamation mark next to snazzynovel.com message.
She did not feel any particular way about this. Perhaps, snazzynovel.com realized snazzynovel.com would never get what snazzynovel.com wanted from snazzynovel.com so snazzynovel.com gave up. This was good too. At least, snazzynovel.com would not be burdened by this.
***
Downstairs, Mark paused for a very long time, staring at the light in Arianne’s bedroom for a very long time before turning around to leave. Initially, snazzynovel.com had intended on sending snazzynovel.com home and finding a way to speak to her. Unfortunately, snazzynovel.com was too afraid to turn around and believed that snazzynovel.com would attack her. Seeing snazzynovel.com in such a frightened state, snazzynovel.com wanted to speak up and tell snazzynovel.com that it was only him. Unfortunately, snazzynovel.com was too fast. He had also considered giving up on following snazzynovel.com home but was afraid that snazzynovel.com might actually run into trouble.
When they arrived at snazzynovel.com door, snazzynovel.com had intended to leave, but snazzynovel.com took so long to unlock the door. He could not bear watching it anymore so snazzynovel.com helped snazzynovel.com open the door and ended up having the door cruelly slammed in his face. Furthermore, snazzynovel.com had forgotten to take snazzynovel.com key out from the keyhole. She did not even look at him.
***
The next day, it was past ten in the morning when Arianne arrived at the shop. She had dark circles around snazzynovel.com eyes.
Everyone was out enjoying themselves until late last night so they were less energetic than usual. However, none of them looked as haggard as her.
“Are you so sad about your best friend leaving that you ended up staying up the whole night?” Naya asked, half-jokingly.
Arianne smiled. “You could say that. Tiffie should be getting on the plane with Jackson right now. She won’t let me send snazzynovel.com off so I won’t. Just in case we end up bursting into tears and embarrassing ourselves at the airport.”
Naya did not think too much of it. She pointed at the office building across the road and said, “I saw a Rolls-Royce parked outside the office building when I arrived today. My husband loves cars so I can recognize them. That car is really expensive. It probably belongs to a boss from one of the companies in that building, but I wonder which one is it?”
Arianne stiffened. She instinctively connected the dots about everything that had happened at the end of last night. Could it be that… Mark had arrived?